Amazon.com's Investment In Fulfillment Can't Be Much Slower [View article]

Yes the biggest issue for AMZN bulls is that they somehow think AMZN will one day put the pedal to the metal and start increasing their margins... fact is this will never happen both for the reasons mentioned above re: fulfillment/warehouse costs... and by the nature of price competition on the internet... yes they will continue to grow rev's (maybe not as much as some hope as evidenced by todays report of only 13% y.o.y. growth in holiday e-commerce!!) but they will never be able to raise gross or operating margins much if at all... even in the cloud they have recently announced drastic price reductions to stay competitive/ gain share

More on Housing Starts: Up 25% Y/Y, we're just getting started, writes Bill McBride, noting this year's total of about 770K is less than half the average from 1959-2000. Last time McBride checked, residential investment and housing starts are the best leading indicators for the economy, and their improvement suggests no recession for the next couple of years. [View news story]

yes - housing will lead us out of this recession for sure! I'm headed to Home Depot right now...

Good for a laugh amidst the rush of 2013 predictions is New York magazine's collection of 2008 forecasts (via). "Buy some of the most beaten-down stocks, including those of giant financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch." [View news story]

Ben Stein might have written the article... somehow this clown is still on the tube...

Pronouncing itself "unapologetically bullish," Merrill Lynch has a 1600 target on the S&P 500 next year. The key will be a strengthening economy once the U.S. gets past the cliff worries. Combine better growth with a still-easy Fed, and you'll also get $2k gold, says Merrill's commodity team. [View news story]

The Fed releases its latest economic projections: The central projection for unemployment in 2015 is 6%-6.6%. Given the earlier FOMC decision to target a UE rate of 6.5% for rate hikes, it suggests the Fed sees tighter policy maybe beginning then. Nowhere to be found in the outlook is an inflation rate rising to 2.5% - also a level at which the Fed says tightening may be required. [View news story]

Market recap: Stocks recovered from a day of D.C. finger-pointing for not making substantive offers to solve the fiscal cliff, as the Dow closed above 13K for the first time in three weeks. Markets have remained remarkably calm despite daily media hype over the cliff, and some see good times ahead for stocks despite the details of any eventual deal. NYSE gainers led losers five to two. [View news story]

"recovered" from down 15 on the Dow and 0.75 S&P handle... lol thank goodness!

“I think it’s becoming increasingly apparent that we won’t get a deal in time for the January deadline,” says CNBC's Jim Cramer. Claims by the President and Speaker Boehner about a deal getting done by Christmas are just "a lot of hot air." Partisan differences are getting worse, not better, Cramer warns, so get ready, because our lawmakers are about to send us over the fiscal cliff. His recommendation: Sell your big gainers by the end of the year and "save a ton" on taxes. [View news story]

If Cramer's getting bearish, it's time to get bullish... as hard as that is for me to admit...